


A New Routine

by CollisionTheory



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, foxiyoweek2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:48:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28417875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CollisionTheory/pseuds/CollisionTheory
Summary: Fox and Riyo unexpectedly bump into each other very early in the morning, giving them some anonymous time together.
Relationships: Riyo Chuchi/CC-1010 | Fox
Comments: 14
Kudos: 29





	A New Routine

**Author's Note:**

> For Foxiyo Week 2020!
> 
> Monday's Theme - Routine: schedule, daily, familiar

His chrono blinked in the dark of early morning, buzzing a little on his wrist to announce that 0430 had arrived.

Dressed in blacks and the standard-issue cold weather jacket, Fox was already outside. His feet struck stairs and walkways and overpasses as he ran through the district, heart pumping a strong and steady rhythm to cycle blood through his limbs. The light of neon signs bloomed in the fog over flickering holo displays, and the cool air he breathed relaxed him like a ‘warm’ day on Kamino.

As a clone designed to live and die in the service of arms, his genome had been specifically altered with this in mind. His heart rate in combat or any stressful situation could rise beyond the level of what most trained baseline humans could handle without falling apart. He could run faster and farther for longer. His body used and transported nutrients and signaling compounds more efficiently at an improved rate. He needed less sleep and could stay focused for longer. And because he was a commander, he was more so than a standard trooper. But ability without practice and discipline is nothing, so Fox was- as usual- out and running through the arteries of Coruscant well before sunrise.

Running put him into a sort of meditative trance where he was in his own head without thinking and outside of it without really observing. He passed by walkway-side vendors calling out to species he’d never seen before in languages he’d never hear again. Cloaked figures congealed around droid parts shops that burst with sparks and pylons and cutting torches deep within. Conduits hissed with steam and water glittered as it is splashed down from high overhead, the dripping in time with his footfalls against the ground. Groups of nocturnal species just getting started entered clubs with shrieks and riotous laughter, exchanging places with humans and Twi’leks and Duros who sang out of wildly out of key and staggered drunkenly towards speeder taxis as they left. Fox ran by a couple of pilots from Mid Rim ag worlds fresh off their first shipment to Coruscant gazing slack-jawed at the endless variety and sleepless activity of the city world. He’d been the same way when he first got off the transport from Kamino- he pretended he hadn’t been, but he had.

So maybe he’d try something new.

Fox switched up his route to head for an open-air market he’d never experienced outside of regular duty. He ran up a tall stone staircase, mentally leaning into the challenge as he willed his straining muscles not to slow his pace. Sweat beaded over his warm skin. Though he’d never run this way before, he still knew where he was going; he wouldn’t have been the commanding officer of the entire Coruscant Guard if he didn’t.

***

_Shiiiik. Shiiik. Shiiik._

The Selkath ran the knife over the fish with quick, clean motions. Bunches of scales flew off its diamond-shaped black body and fell onto the top of the wet cutting station, flecking the guts and venomous spine clusters already lying there. Throngs of beings were slowly starting to gather around this booth and many others, but Riyo had gotten here just when they opened; she would have the first and freshest pick of the seafood just dropped off by the cold cargo ships.

The vendor spoke to her in a voice that sounded like glitching electronics smothered in syrup as she handed Riyo the bag of cleaned fish with a little something extra.

“Yes, I- oh, are you sure Hruna? Thank you so much!” Riyo leaned forward to take the package, clutching the burgundy shawl wrapped over her head and shoulders closed as she did so to stay warm.

A Quarren with a hovercart full of ice brusquely pushed past Riyo as she stepped away from Hruna’s booth, knocking her into a stack of tanks containing what looked disturbingly like juvenile opee sea killers. She tripped through a puddle of something cold and wet, jumping back into the growing crowd as the cleaver-wielding owner of the baby opees yelled at her in Huttese laced with the trade language of one of the long-range Outer Rim fishing clans.

Flustered and cold- she had forgotten to bring gloves in her haste to get here early- Riyo planted herself under a streetlight to check the rest of the items on her purchase list. The smell of citrusy, spicy soup being poured into cups with battered and fried crustaceans floated over from somewhere nearby, making her mouth water and bringing pleasant thoughts back into her morning.

  
“Riyo!” A familiar voice shot out of the din and dark of the early-morning fish market, making her morning even better.

She blinked in surprise, putting away her list and looking up to see a clone in a hooded jacket and blacks come to a sudden stop in front of her. His chest rose and sank heavily with exertion, but he was smiling at her and looked refreshed as he walked forward.

“Fox! Fox, what are you doing out here this early?” she asked with a smile equal to his own.

“Exercise. Decided to take a different route today.” He pulled alongside her, giving her a one-armed hug over the shoulder and nuzzling the top of her head with his. His arm dropped down her back, then to his side as he took his hand in hers.

“And you told me it was _cold_ on Pantora…” continued Fox as he felt and squeezed her icy hand in his own. 

“It _is_ , but we still have gloves back home- and Fox, Fox- somebody will see us-” Anxiety stained her new happiness as she looked around at the mess of vendors, suppliers, and guests moving through the eclectic sights and sounds of the seafood market.

She pulled away from him, stepping out from under the streetlight, but he grabbed the sides of her shoulders and pulled her back into the light.

“Riyo, look at me right now- what do you see? _Who_ do you see?” his expression gentle but with quiet insistence in his voice.

Her eyes flitted over his body as she shifted in place, idly twirling her bag of fish- standard working boots, standard blacks with the white cog of the Republic on his chest, standard cold weather jacket, and the most common face in the galaxy.

Riyo’s anxiety cracked away like the chocolate shell over a frozen sweet flat-fruit. Her body lurched forward in a small, silent laugh as she walked straight into his chest, pulling him close and shutting her eyes as she breathed him in and fed off his warmth in the cool Coruscant morning.

Fox cradled her head in one hand and pulled her tightly against him with the other. He felt her chest vibrate as she said something, but he had no idea what it was. He kissed her forehead, then they pulled away.

Riyo was smiling again as she grabbed _his_ hand this time.

“I come here at this time every week, you know.” She looked down and kicked a chunk of ice on the ground off to the side with her boots. “Mostly, anyway,” she addressed the ground before looking back into his face.

“In that case, so do I,” said Fox with his characteristic subtle smile.

Her eyes lit up and she slung her pack of fish over her shoulder, gesturing deeper into the market.

“See down there? They’ll cook whatever you buy here. Each booth specializes in a different cooking style, so you have choices.”

“Wouldn’t know what half of them are,” said Fox good-naturedly.

“Oh neither do I usually!” Riyo tugged his hand and began to pull him along. “But let’s be surprised!” 

They made their way through the chilly seafood market of pre-dawn Coruscant, not as Commander Fox and Senator Riyo Chuchi, but as a non-descript clone and Pantoran couple out on a very early date. 


End file.
